In a petition posted to the U.S. Government's "We ThePeople" website, the group likens DDoS attacks to "occupy" demonstrations, insistingthat this method of taking down a website is not a form of hacking, but a new type of protest for the digital age.

""It is the equivalent of repeatedly hitting therefresh button on a webpage," reads the petition. "Instead of a group of peoplestanding outside a building to occupy the area, they are having their computeroccupy a website to slow (or deny) service of that particular website for ashort time."

#dequimArief W

The hacktivist group goes on to ask that those who have been jailed forDDoS attacks in the past should be released immediately and have any relatedcriminal activity on their records cleared.

Make, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), a legal form of protesting. | We the People: Your Voice in Our Governmentwe petition the obama administration to: With the advance in internet techonology, comes new grounds for protesting. Distributed denial-o...

In order to elicit a response from the Obama administration, the petition will require at least 25,000 signatures by February 6. In the three days since it was launched, it's pulled in just over 1000 names.

This is a big one . Petition to make DDoS a legal form of protest. Here's my signature.Via @57UN#AnonFamily http://pic.twitter.com/nKlN7Xsd#OpAntiBully

DDoS should be a legal form of protestingNic Shacklock

I'm in favor of Anonymous and their new petition to make DDoS attacks a legal form of protest. It is similar to the occupy movement.Randi

Petition to make distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), a legal form of protesting. #Anonymous Via @Youranonnews https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-distributed-denial-service-ddos-legal-form-protesting/X3drjwZYAnon Farmers

Many are pointing out the irony of a group that is often proudly anti-establishment, and has indeed used DDoS attacks to shut down the websites of many government websites in the past, asking the U.S. government to legalize this activity.

"It's hard to imagine a group that adheres to anarchic ideology would want its actions legalized under U.S. law," wrote CNET's Dara Kerr, "But that is exactly what Anonymous is doing."

We are Anonymous. We are #Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.#Anonymous #ddos #irc #web #internet #geek #protest #censorship #wikileaksPaddy conway

In January of 2012, members of the group took responsibility for crashing websites belonging to the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI and the RIAA in response to the shutdown of the file sharing site Megaupload.